book cover of Three Cross / Deputy of Violence
 

Three Cross / Deputy of Violence

(1981)
(A book in the Shawn Starbuck series)
An omnibus of novels by

 
 
Three Cross

Shawn Starbuck had covered thousands of rugged miles through the wild Southwest, in search of his lost brother Ben. Now at last, he had a real clue. The end seemed almost in sight...
Then Starbuck met up with Jim Kelso, a man who desperately needed his help. Kelso's ranch, Three Cross, was besieged by ruthless marauders who would stop at nothing until the ranch was theirs. What were they after? What was the priceless secret of Three Cross? Starbuck swore to- find out, though it might mean losing the trail to Ben - and his own neck - in a blood-drenched battle for land and gold.

Deputy of Violence

For years Starbuck had searched the grueling trails and blistering deserts for his brother Ben. Just when it seemed that the long search had ended, Starbuck stumbled through the gates of a hidden valley. Its inhabitants were being held captive in the clutches of a gang of ruthless renegades. And they weren't about to let a man like Starbuck go about his business - the only way they'd let him leave the valley was in a pine box ...

Ray Hogan is an author who has inspired a loyal following ever since he published his first Western novel Ex-marshal in 1956. Hogan was born in Willow Springs, Missouri, where his father was town marshal. At five the Hogan family moved to Albuquerque where Ray Hogan lived in the foothills of the Sandia and Manzano mountains. His father was on the Albuquerque police force and, in later years, owned the Overland Hotel. It was while listening to his father and other old-timers tell tales from the past that Ray was inspired to recast these tales in fiction. From the beginning he did exhaustive research into the history and the people of the Old West and the walls of his study were lined with various firearms, spurs, pictures, books, and memorabilia, about all of which he could talk in dramatic detail. Among his most popular works are the series of books about Shawn Starbuck, a searcher in a quest for a lost brother, who has a clear sense of right and wrong and who is willing to stand up and be counted when it is a question of fairness or justice. His other major series is about lawman John Rye, whose reputation has earned him the sobriquet The Doomsday Marshal. 'I've attempted to capture the courage and bravery of those men and women that lived out west and the dangers and problems they had to overcome," Hogan once remarked. If his lawmen protagonists seem sometimes larger than life, it is because they are men of integrity, heroes who through grit, character and common sense are able to overcome the obstacles they encounter despite often overwhelming odds. This same grit of character can also be found in Hogan's heroines and, in The Vengeance of Fortuna West, Hogan wrote a gripping and totally believable account of a woman who takes up the badge and tracks the men who killed her lawman husband by ambush. No less intriguing in her way is Nellie Dupray, convicted of rustling in The Glory Trail. Above all, what is most impressive about Hogan's Western novels is the consistent quality with which each is crafted, the compelling depth of his characters, and his ability to juxtapose the complexities of human conflict into narratives always as intensely interesting as they are emotionally involving.


Genre: Western

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